Pulverize these little delicious nuggets into dusty crumbs and mix with melted butter until you get an even, sandy texture.

Press into a greased and lined spring form pan and bake for 10 – 15 minutes and let cool.

Here’s my reminder to you: ALWAYS LET YOUR CREAM CHEESE THAW OVERNIGHT. I didn’t let mine and it refused to incorporate with the eggs, sugar, sour cream, and vanilla. I ended up with chunky egg soup!

After much frustrated whipping, I finally had to strain out the cream cheese, beat it separately, and then slowly reincorporate the custard half into the cheesecake batter. I was then able to split the mixture and dye one half pink!

I then alternated layers of each color into the pan. The batter should have been the consistency of pancake mix, but I’d whipped so much air into the eggs attempting to incorporate the cream cheese that the batter was about three times as thick as it should have been.

I was able to layer the batter, but not nearly as gracefully or as beautifully as I’d wished!

And then this happened. I panicked. I thought I’d accidentally made a souffle! This is the unfortunate side effect of whipping too much air into the eggs. It only dripped a little – but enough for smoke to fill the house – and the surface of the cake, as you can see, was off color.

After the cake settled, I had to cut the overcooked ring off of the top. Thankfully this recipe calls for a basic white chocolate ganache, which is accomplished by melting a cup of white chocolate chips into a half cup of heavy cream over a double boiler. In lieu of a double boiler, you can microwave the chips and the cream in 30 second intervals until combined.

My cheesecake anxiety also caused me to pour the ganache when it was too warm and I lost a lot of it over the side. This time I was saved by the sprinkles! I ended up pouring an entire bottle of tiny round colors over the surface of the cake!

After a night in the fridge, the cake was served with a whipped topping, much to the delight of the mother-in-law. Huzzah!

Not every recipe is smooth sailing, but with good company, even the rockiest of treats is enjoyed! Thanks for hanging in there with me, kiddos, and remember…

Chip Mom luvs ya!

]]>https://chiptuneswin.com/blog/chip-moms-kitchen-44-i-almost-a-cheesecake/feed/021577Aydan Appreciates: ‘Kintsugi’ by Calaverahttps://chiptuneswin.com/blog/aydan-appreciates-kintsugi-by-calavera/
https://chiptuneswin.com/blog/aydan-appreciates-kintsugi-by-calavera/#respondSat, 17 Feb 2018 00:00:34 +0000https://chiptuneswin.com/blog/?p=21565A lot of the chipscene is based in eitherthe Americas, Europe, or Asia. So many talented artists come from these four continents that we often forget about good ol’ Australia. With the recent influx of interest in Square Sounds Melbourne 2018, and a steady flow of music coming from Australian chipmusicians over the last few years, now seems like the perfect time to review one of the most recent works to come out of the region. Calavera is known for his down-tempo bass-filled bangers of tracks, and his most recent work, ‘Kintsugi’, certainly delivers them. We’ll be looking at three tracks from this album in-depth, so buckle up for one hell of a ride.

Kintsugi by CalaveraAfter a 40-second introductory track that sets the mood for the remainder of the album, the listener is greeted with ‘To Repair with Gold’. It doesn’t take long for an experienced listener to identify that the album is composed through LSDj, as the program’s signature WAV channel sound is flaunted from the very beginning of the song. At 0:31, the percussion picks up in pace and the track hits its stride; groovy, stuttered sextuplets in the song’s rhythmic voices play over a predominantly eighth-note melody, and mesh with chords that crescendo and decrescendo on each measure to create a strong, dark atmosphere. After eight measures of this particular phrasing, Calavera puts significantly less focus on the backing voices and minimizes variance in the song’s percussion to put more focus on the melodic lead of ‘To Repair with Gold’. This call-and-response method of composing is prevalent through this song in particular and is used to great effect, providing a clear contrast between the song’s chorus and its verses, while intermingling the melodies and voices of both at times. At the 2:36 mark, significant focus is put on a melody and a chord in the midst of said melody, but with the introduction of backing octaves, this phrase is pitched up, adding to the song’s tension before returning to the familiar.

Kintsugi by CalaveraNext we’ll be listening to ‘With Hope like a Rollercoaster’. The opening of this song features very deep square and WAV tones with minimal percussion, evoking a very dark, metal vibe. Heavy kicks and punchy snares work in tandem with crashes and glitchy, staccato square riffs to ramp up the intensity of this track to head-banging levels of awesomeness. The song’s riffs being played on a double harmonic scale contributes to the track’s Eastern-sounding ostinato, and is a key that isn’t often heard in chipmusic. There are numerous interesting touches to the track; for example, at the 1:02 mark, it almost sounds like multiple different instruments are trading off the note, but a closer listen reveals a series of simple tone change on a flat note to a specific rhythm. Another interesting technique is used at 1:34; a phrase is played by the lead voice, and another voice responds with a different melody, but quieter. The leading instrument is quite dominant in tone, while its follow-up seems subdued but persistent in nature, and in this observation and several other quirks in this song, it’s obvious that Calavera has put an exorbitant amount of work into it. In fact, a colossal amount of work has gone into this album as a whole…

Kintsugi by Calavera…and I believe the song that best exemplifies this statement is the final track, ‘The Stars Sung Their Reveries, and I Walked On’. The beginning sounds like something off of an ambient album, with beautiful chords and something of a slight, pleasant dissonance to break the mold. These flowing chords play unaccompanied until 1:22, when the main melody comes in. This square voice comes in quietly, with vibrato accentuating some of the longer notes and frequent glissando – note sliding – throughout the lovely, repeated phrase. Another moment passes, with a slight fluctuation to this new melody signifying yet another upcoming change. Another series of chords enter, saturating the soundscape, and another melody plays quietly above the rest of the song’s established instrumentation. A gust of wind is heard, and the song decrescendos rather quickly and fades into almost nothingness. The faint sounds of footsteps can be heard as the music dies out, and at the end of the song, wind can be heard blowing. This, too, fades into nothingness. Without reading too far in between the lines, this album seems to be the result of a mixture of creativity, love, and other strong emotions, and I strongly believe ‘The Stars Sung Their Reveries, and I Walked On’ is a beautiful metaphor for one’s life continuing after turmoil, or as Calavera puts it, ‘finding hope in the wreckage’.

‘Kintsugi’ is available on Bandcamp for $7, and this is indisputably an excursion worth taking. Varied styles of composition and innumerable emotions coalesce and create a stellar album worth every penny. For those of you attending Square Sounds Melbourne next week, be sure you don’t miss out on Calavera’s set, as he’s almost certain to be playing some of this phenomenal work in his set. Calavera’s latest work is sure to attract a veritable number of fans, both veterans and newcomers to the chipscene alike; I know I’ve got my eye on this artist after discovering ‘Kintsugi’.

]]>https://chiptuneswin.com/blog/aydan-appreciates-kintsugi-by-calavera/feed/021565Happy Valentine’s Day from ChipWIN!https://chiptuneswin.com/blog/happy-valentines-day-from-chipwin/
https://chiptuneswin.com/blog/happy-valentines-day-from-chipwin/#respondWed, 14 Feb 2018 17:55:25 +0000https://chiptuneswin.com/blog/?p=21544Happy Valentine’s Day from all of us at ChipWIN to you! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧✧✧✧

And yes, we do in fact have a Valentines Day gift just for you! Click past the read-more tag to learn exactly what it is….

Submissions for ‘Chiptunes = WIN: Volume 7‘ are now LIVE!!!!!!!

Not too shabby a gift, ay? (^_−)−☆

Granted, you have to wait several months before the final product is delivered, but, uh… it’s the thought that counts, riiiiiight? ⚈ ̫ ⚈

At any rate, full details about the open-to-all-participants compilation competition can be found right HERE.

]]>https://chiptuneswin.com/blog/happy-valentines-day-from-chipwin/feed/021544Guérin’s Dissections: ‘Sinergy’ by IDecadehttps://chiptuneswin.com/blog/guerins-dissections-sinergy-by-idecade/
https://chiptuneswin.com/blog/guerins-dissections-sinergy-by-idecade/#respondTue, 13 Feb 2018 00:00:26 +0000https://chiptuneswin.com/blog/?p=21522IDecade—yet another amazing Italian chipmusician—is a relative newcomer to chiptune. You may have seen him posting his LSDJ tutorial videos around the Facebook group recently, but he started in 2015 using Milkytracker. Since his transition to LSDJ in 2016, he’s been making catchy dance tracks in various genres, and he’s made an immense amount of progress in the 2 short years he’s been releasing musi. With his latest album, ‘Sinergy’—released this past December—he’s ready to set the international chip community on fire.

IDecade uses 1xLSDJ with a unique blend of old-school LSDJ melodies (similar to that of early Trey Frey or any number of harder chipmusians you’d hear circa 2008-2011) mixed with modern dance music production found on recent LDSJ albums such as ‘REFRESH’ or any of Monodeer’s albums. This unique blend showcases his impressive channel economy in many of his songs.

Sinergy by IDecade
The track ‘Benjo’ is a great exhibition of this style. Yes, this album contains a lot of drum & bass, and yes, it goes hard. This song showcases IDecade’s mastery not only of LSDJ, but also drum & bass. I’ve spent the past three years trying to perfect the genre, and I’m still learning a lot of the in’s and out’s of the genre, but it’s clear that IDecade has the genre nailed with this track. The structure of the song is amazingly well-paced, and it builds to an incredible break-in. The frenetic 16th-note sections that flit around the pounding bass and percussion add a manic energy to this song. His albility to juggle bass and melodic fills in the wav channel while cramming main melodies and backing into both pulsep channels makes this song feel deeper than the 3 melodic channels available that 1 gameboy usually allow. Just like many of the other songs on this album, it’s short, sweet, and doesn’t over-stay its welcome. Though I’d argue that this song should have continued longer, there is something to be said for the brevity exercised in many of the tracks on this song.

Sinergy by IDecade
If brevity is used to contain some of the more hectic, dense songs on this album, the longer ones certainly stand out as the hit singles that bring to bare every trick that IDecade has learned since he started making chiptune. One of the features of LSDJ he makes heavy use of in his songs is panning. In ‘Catastrophe’, he uses panned instruments in a few ways to keep the song interesting. One of the ways he uses this feature is the distortion caused by incredibly rapid panning between left, center, and right stereo channels with pulse instruments. It causes a rapid clicking sound to almost cover up the center channel, creating an angry, full-spectrum sound over top of the wav bass in the main sections. It gives the song more energy than even the insane panning pulse runs already grant the song. The underlying drum and bass rhythms are also rock solid, with fills and groove changes sprinkled in to keep the song from feeling too repetitive.

Sinergy by IDecade
To keep the album equally as varied, IDecade also changes up styles regularly. Whereas the first few songs feature slower tempos and house rhythms, the middle of the album feature faster bpms. IDecade also seems to pay homage to the styles of other famous LSDJ artists such as Monodeer in the incredibly bassy trap hit ‘Far’ or from Hypnogram in ‘Mad’. He uses these pastiches to build upon his already stellar composition, but he also makes these songs his own. In ‘Far’ he drives the song into a catchy, loopy drum and bass banger, while in ‘Mad’ he mixes in some of that old-school LSDJ flavor while showing off with some triplet WAV fuckery. Both songs are amazing testaments not only to his ability to learn the styles of two bonafide LSDJ experts, but he also masters and manipulates them to create something entirely new.

This album easily places IDecade up with his other Italian contemporary, StarvingGOGO. Europe has always been home to many great chipmusicians, but this past year has seen the rise of many new hard hitters. I’m always happy to see new blood in the scene, but the talent some of these artists have is insane. I can’t wait to hear what IDecade has planned for his next release. It can only get crazier from here on out!

]]>https://chiptuneswin.com/blog/guerins-dissections-sinergy-by-idecade/feed/021522Paul’s Pantry: Chip Tanaka – ‘Django’https://chiptuneswin.com/blog/pauls-pantry-chip-tanaka-django/
https://chiptuneswin.com/blog/pauls-pantry-chip-tanaka-django/#respondThu, 08 Feb 2018 00:00:18 +0000https://chiptuneswin.com/blog/?p=21224[Editor’s note: I nearly un-retired from review writing to cover this magnificent new release composed by one of my original childhood inspirations; Tanaka-san’s Metroid OST is largely responsible for initially engaging my interests in both VGM and chip, if not music in general! I’m glad I didn’t, however, as Paul has done a marvelous job conveying his own enthusiasm and appreciation for ‘Django’ as a chipmusic composer himself. Regardless, please enjoy this lovely take from a member of the new chiptune generation on one of the forefathers of chipmusic’s latest works! ~Brandon L. H.]

If you’ve read any of my previous reviews, you know how laudative and enthusiastic I can get. But today is a bit different. Here I am, listening to this album again, reading up on Tanaka-san’s bio to research the article, recalling the mind-bending experience that was seeing him live at Square Sounds Tokyo last September. Here I am, writing about the article, instead of the album or the artist, trying to sound meta and smart, keeping my composure, because I don’t want you to know that words are failing me.

I don’t want this article to be a string of enthusiastic platitudes and generic descriptions of the music. I love this album and I want my review to do it justice, beyond the fact that I’m still starstruck and not in any fit state to be objective.

And even if this album refuses to fit nicely in a traditional 2k-word album review, which it probably will, I’m still gonna give it my best shot. Here we are. Let me tell you about Chip Tanaka, and his album, ‘Django’.

This beautiful cover art shows the many qualities of Chip Tanaka’s music: Eclectic, goofy, organic, multi-facetted and good for your health.

Hirokazu “Hip” Tanaka, also known by his stage alias “Chip Tanaka” has just turned 60 years old, as I’m writing this. He’s had time to do a lot of great things in his life. I’m extremely admirative of his journey so far, and I’m expecting every day of it from now on to be the beginning of something new and awesome. Happy Birthday, Tanaka-san. Let’s get a few factoids out of the way first so that I may catch my breath and actually try to focus on the music at some point.

*inhale*

I’m not even exaggerating too much when I say that CHIP TANAKA IS THE REASON CHIPTUNE EXISTS IN THE FIRST PLACE.

That’s right. The quintessential chip daddy. No sweat Brandon. Be worthy of the title. [Editor’s note: Geez, thx bud. No pressure, ya jerk… Σ(‘◉⌓◉’)] Tanaka-san has worked as an electronic hardware engineer for Nintendo during the 1980’s. Some of his accomplishments include designing the sound chips for the Nintendo NES and Gameboy. Let that sink in. And that’s only part of what my Capslock sentence above encompasses. He has also co-developped the Gameboy Camera and Printer, and worked as a sound effects designer for the original Donkey Kong game (That’s right, the guy who made the Mario jump and coin sounds. Talk about seminal and influential.)

And OH YEAH, he has worked as a composer for some little-known Nintendo franchises such as Smash Brothers, Kid Icarus, Metroid, Mario, and the Mother series (known in the West as the games Earthbound Beginnings and Earthbound). I purposefully saved these for last because, A, they’re my favourites, and B, Tanaka-san has channelled a lot of the Mother OST’s feel into his album ‘Django’, so I’m using that as a transition. There. Transition. Now read that paragraph again, giggle like a 12 year-old, and press that beautiful play button.

OK time for the actual review

If I had an unlimited amount of time on my hands, and if I didn’t care at all about my readers’ comfort and attention, I would gladly take it upon myself to comment every single song on this 14-track record in great detail, with a lot of expletives, superlatives and hyperboles. But for the sake of common decency, let’s focus on the cream of the crop, my favourite songs off of Chip Tanaka’s ‘Django’.

‘BEAVER’

Some of the words I’ve seen used most to describe Tanaka-san’s music in other reviews are “whimsical”, “quirky” and “carefree”. I can’t help but agree with them to an extent, but not going further than this assessment would feel almost criminal.

Listening to ‘Beaver’, one of the feelings that comes across most vividly is one of day-to-day joy. It’s a very important cultural concept in Japan, coined in the beautiful word “Nichijou” (日常). The song is laid out on a light-hearted hip-hop beat, which quickly tightens up into an upbeat reggae skank, emphasized by square wave staccato chords. Harmonies sound very warm and major, and they mesh well with the deliberately detuned, drunk-sounding saw bass.

At first, ‘Beaver’ sounds very accessible and easy to listen to, but it doesn’t mean the song can’t convey emotional depth or substance. There’s a very thin line between “carefree” and “careful” that Tanaka-san seems to play with extremely well. Not unlike a virtuoso pianist, whose playing sounds fluid and effortless, Tanaka-san manages to smooth out the edges of what is actually a very minutiously crafted song.

This aspect of his songwriting and sound design is particularly visible in the melodic section of ‘Beaver’. Leads are written in a very unquantized, free-flowing way, across a widely varied instrument palette. Intricate yet accessible, loose and free from the otherwise ever-present electronic beat grid, the glitchy sample-based vocal lines pop right out of the mix, enticing the player to pay close attention to its many minute details. The melodic motif in the chorus, with its hanging high note, is in my opinion the most beautiful moment in the song: a glimmering hint of melancholy in an otherwise very joyful song, which proves much deeper and richer than it first lets on.

‘EMGR’

After the more experimental and contemplative title track ‘Django’, and its harmonies that would feel right at home in a Mother game, Tanaka-san goes meta and cranks the volume up, with a track meant to shake up the cones of big beefy party boomers. While ‘Beaver’ seemed like a celebration of the joys of the everyday life, ‘EMGR’ takes it up a notch, and makes me want to leap and whoop with glee.

‘EMGR’ is an unapologetic and hilarious take on modern electronic genres. Among a fiery festival of chord confetti, the bombastic, hard-hitting, EDM snares samples should sound caricatural, but they really don’t. Buildups and interludes seem to be wearing clown makeup. Childlike cheers and party whoops echo against each other among more familiar EDM vocal samples, effectively freshening up the traditional formula of typical late 2010’s trap beats.

Tanaka-san manages a true tour de force here. ‘EMGR’ flourishes in a kaleidoscope of influences, as much a love letter as a parody, laughing but never mocking, reminding us that music is meant to be played, and played with. Half a pastiche and cheeky caricature, half an erudite commentary and exploration, ‘EMGR’ can be perceived in a number of different ways. Genres are summoned to this colourful parade with espièglerie, exposing their gimmicks, their shortcomings and their power at the same time. In this spectacular circus of a song, Tanaka-san is hinting at the dawn of a lush and beautiful Post-EDM musical landscape.

I kinda want to look that cool at 60 too.

‘OBIRIGADO DUB’ (Paul’s Highlight)

Throughout the rest of the album, Chip Tanaka braids together a wide variety of genres and wears his many influences on his sleeve, weaving them into many interesting textures. Several of the following tracks exemplify how important it is for him that musical experimentation stay accessible and, well, musical.

The track ‘Hungry’ manages to keep a steady sense of direction and enticement, thanks to an interesting game of chassé-croisé between the rhythmic and harmonic sections. Whenever harmonies stray into atonality, clear-cut drum patterns help to tie it all down. When in turn, drums squiggle out of their grid, chords and melodies become simpler, allowing the listener to keep a sense of place in the track’s progression.

Not unlike ‘EMGR’, ‘Prizm’ experiments on genre codes, sewing together a patchwork of House, layered with a VGM- and Jazz-influenced chord progression. Towards the middle point of the track, a series of beautifully crafted and very groovy drum fills help the song transition to more modern and niche rhythmic influences such as Footwork beats, and old school Dub. In ‘Rad Moose’, Tanaka-san shows influences stemming from the seminal era of UK Garage, Grime and 2-step, once again putting the Dub back in Dubstep.

Tanaka-san’s love for Dub is a well-known fact, and yet it has never been exemplified so clearly by his own musical output. As we draw nearer to the end of the album, hints become increasingly present and obvious, with ringing tape delays and bass patterns forming an inevitable stylistic leitmotiv in tracks like ‘Ringin Dub’, ‘Drifting’ or ‘Pop Bomb’.

But it is in the final track of the album ‘Obirigado Dub’, where I feel the wave finally crashes. This track is one of my personal favourites in this album. After all the heavy hints dropped before it, this song acts as a pinnacle for the album, bringing a sense of closure and conclusion. It feels very logical as the album’s closing track. A feverish, almost obsessive bass pattern drones on among vaporous tape delays, and the listener can finally sit down to reflect on this fourteen-track journey. But there’s something else still, enticing us to look forward.

Glistening vocal textures begin to flourish in the top-end, reminiscent of none other than Björk. The track progresses at a very slow pace, but never feels like it’s dragging along. On the contrary, every moment shows us details we didn’t see before. Experimentation in this track somehow manages to become the cornerstone of its cohesion, one of the many prowesses that Tanaka-san seems to perform almost effortlessly.

This album feels like the genius work of a veteran, but with none of the pompousness usually associated with so-called “works of maturity”. Tanaka-san has managed to distill his childlike enthusiasm and sense of wonder into every track, while at the same time offering a lot to the attentive listener. This album acts both as a catalyst of Tanaka’s experience and eclectic influences, his “creative pinnacle”, and an essay on musical evolution and inovation.

‘Django’ is available on Bandcamp as digital and physical releases. Purchasers of the CD edition will receive a download code for a bonus unreleased track!

Tuberz here with an awesome helping of music theory for you. I’ve spent the last few weeks detoxing from the release of The Great Australian Barbecue Bash (which was covered on this blog by a very hip and happening Chip Bit Sid). Last month we covered the idea of pivoting into closely related key areas, as well as harmonic planing. The usual disclaimer applies. Music theory is a vast topic, and if you don’t follow where we’re at with the content this month I would stronglyrecommend that you goback and revisit my previousarticles. This month I’m covering the concept of pivoting into seemingly unrelated key areas. This is a deep topic, so it will be a bit denser than previous articles, but just as rewarding to read through.

Let’s jam.

Seriously, do you like… pay a guy to make weird photos of music theory or like what?

So why would we pivot to something unrelated?

I’m really glad that you asked that. The idea of pivoting to a closely related key is that it breaks up the monotony of the same key area. The harmonic palette can become boring, or perhaps stagnant is a better term. It’s because in the Western world we have 7 notes in a diatonic scale, and if we keep reusing the same 7 notes our ears become settled on those notes. It has no drama or tension. No conflict. Imagine a book where there was no problem to solve. Boring right? Music is the same.

We pivot to closely related keys because it provides an element of drama. Pivoting from C major to G major introduces an F# to the mix, and this is enough to create tension. Where our ears once expected F naturals, we hear the clash of F#s. This helps create movement in music and generate interest. It’s not too dramatic because we still use 6 of our 7 notes in the previous key. However,by pivoting to say… E major from C major we introduce a bit more tension. E major uses F#, C#, G#, and D#. Here 4 of our 7 notes differ from the original key. This is an overwhelmingly divergent harmonic territory, and is incredibly exciting because it completely changes the sound.

This could be used to create a jarring change that shocks the listener as you approach a new section, or it could just be a fleeting moment, perhaps only a few bars. Just to keep the listener on their toes as you return back to initial tonal centre.

Okay that’s nice, but how do we pivot to something unrelated?

This is more of a debated topic. Of course, you can just abruptly transition to this new, unrelated key with no preparation whatsoever, but it will sound somewhat disjointed. We can pivot into these unrelated keys more smoothly by slowly introducing the accidentals of the new key. This is generally done through function chords that have many of the notes of the first key, with mild additions and changes to adhere to the new key.

This would be read using the roman numerals: I – VI7 – II6 – VII7 ] III – – –

However, we also need to think of how these chords relate to the key of E Major: ♭VI – IV7 – ♭VII6 – V7 ] I – – –

Before moving on I want to let you all know that a chord with 6 on the end is a chord in first inversion. A chord with 6-4 on the end is a chord in second inversion.

Some of these chords are quite typical in the harmony of the first key centre, and others are more typical of the final key centre. The II6 is a classic modal mixture, employing the Lydian Mode for its #4 (F# in this case). The I/♭VI is largely considered a colour chord, using modal mixture with the Dorian Mode. The VI7/IV7 is a chord that links itself more strongly to the final key area because of the weight of the I IV and V chords. The same can be said for the VII7/V7 chord. It strongly hints at the new tonal centre by acting as a dominant seventh chord.

So in this example, the A7 adds the C#, the D/F# adds the F#, the B7 adds the D#, and the G# is somewhat implied in this transition.

Another super cool thing is that the A7 is the dominant seventh chord of D, which is the dominant seventh chord of B7, which is the dominant seventh chord of E. This goes a bit beyond secondary dominants, and stretches into the territory of extended dominant functionality. Think of it as the musical equivalent of holding someone’s hand and leading them down the garden path. They don’t know what’s there, but they know where they’re going.

You could take this a step further and change the inversions of the chords to have a sturdy bassline too! I’ve done these edits in red.
Notice how the C in the first bar constantly steps up by a semitone for each consecutive chord! Also the A in bar two suspends the whole way through until it resolves to G#.
Music theory is so cool.

So how can I organise something like this for my music???

That’s the next step and takes a bit of time. Organise what your key is and then which key you want to navigate to. I like to think of the dominant chords of that new tonal centre and make that the last chord in the transitional passage. Let’s say we’re migrating from C major to A♭ major (B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭).

So our last chord might be E♭7 which is V7 of our new tonal centre, but it’s ♭III7 of our original key (It incorporates the Dorian Mode too, which we’ll touch on later). We then need to look for ways to add the accidentals and functionally prepare our V7. We could start with V/V7 (secondary dominant) [B♭7] (This is ♭VII7 in our first key). We could then prepare this B♭7 with another chord that prepares the V/V7.

The D♭ of the new key is added in an abstract manner. A7 uses a C# to make it a major chord, and C# is enharmonically the same as D♭. This chord is followed by B♭M7 which not only introduces B♭, but also uses a D natural. this means that the voice leading of the phrase steps up from the C#/D♭ in the A7 to a D natural in the B♭M7 chord. This is closely followed by the E♭7, which includes the E♭ note, which is a step up from D natural (E♭ = D#).

The naturally occurring modal mixture is a testament to the nature of harmony and chord theory. Even chords outside of a certain key centre can imbue a sense of heavy tonality and function by moving towards a desired key area.

So hopefully this inspires some ideas for you on how to pivot into seemingly unrelated chords using function chords and by slowly introducing accidentals. Thanks so much for wrapping your heads around such a complex topic. Please share how this knowledge has helped you with your own craft! If you have questions, recommendations for topics, or even just want to share what you’ve learned, get in touch with me at tuberzmcgee (at) gmail (dot) com. I’m always happy to listen/read/help out. Tune in next month for a discussion on the use of melody and its impact on the harmonic landscape.